Christiane Linster

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Christiane Linster
Linster hp.jpg
Born1962 (age 61–62)
Luxembourg
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
Known forResearch in neuromodulation as it relates to learning and memory, using the olfactory system of rodents as a model
SpouseThomas A. "Thom" Cleland [1]
Children4 [2]
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions

Christiane Linster is a Luxembourg-born behavioral neuroscientist and a professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University. [3] Her work focuses on neuromodulation along with learning and memory, using the olfactory system of rodents as a model. Her lab integrates behavioral, electrophysiological, and computational work. Linster was the founding President of the Organization for Computational Neurosciences (OCNS), which was created to coordinate and lead the annual meeting of aspiring and senior computational neuroscientists. Linster served as president of the OCNS from 2003 until 2005 when she was replaced by her successor Ranu Jung. [4] [5]

Contents

As of 2000, Linster co-directs (with Thomas Cleland) the Computational Neurophysiology Lab in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University. She teaches a classes in Systems and Computational Neuroscience, Programming for Neuroscience and Introduction to Neuroscience. Linster is completely fluent in English, French, and German (as well as Luxembourgish), which broadened her horizons for her professional career. [6]

Education and teaching experience

Christiane Linster was born in Luxembourg in 1962 where she remained for her childhood and obtained her high school degree from the Lycee des Garcons Luxembourg. In 1982 she studied clarinet at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz in Austria, as well as Electrical Engineering at the Graz University of Technology (TU Graz). She graduated in 1987 with a Certificate in Classical Clarinet and Conducting as well as a Masters in Electrical Engineering and published her senior thesis entitled "Get Rhythm: A Musical Application for Neural Networks". [6] [7]

In 1989, Linster accepted a position as a research fellow in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Graz University of Technology. While she was conducting research at TU Graz (1989-1990), she also assisted in the instruction of an optical communications lab and a course-lab combination in Neural Networks. [6] From 1990 to 1993, she studied as a graduate student and worked as a teaching fellow in the Electronics Lab at ESPCI in Paris, France. During this time, she also worked towards her PhD at Pierre and Marie Curie University, in Paris. She graduated with a PhD in applied physics in 1993 and was named Assistant Professor of the ESPCI Electronics Laboratory in the same year. Linster only held the assistant professor position in the ESPCI Electronics Lab for two years before moving to the United States to assume a post-doctoral research position with Michael Hasselmo at Harvard University. [6] From 1998 to 2000, Linster lectured for the Department of Psychology at Harvard University before becoming an assistant professor and eventually a professor of the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University where she remains today. [6]

Professional career and research

Linster focuses largely on research for most of her professional career, although she has aided in the instruction of a few courses and labs at multiple universities. While working at ESPCI, she had a hand in publishing many articles that focused on pheromone recognition based on relative concentrations of major and minor molecular components in the pheromones themselves. [8] [9]

From 1995 to 2000, while Linster held the post-doctoral position with Michael Hasselmo at Harvard University, and broadened her research into the computational roles of neuromodulation. She also began seeking out a possible physiological pathway for the proposed regulation of neural activity in the horizontal limb of the diagonal band of Broca (HDB) by activity in the olfactory bulb or cerebral cortex of the brain. [10] [11] [12]

Most of Linster's work has been undertaken since she was named an assistant professor (and later professor) of the Department for Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University in 2000. She has continued to contribute to multiple scientific articles and is still making advances in research into how various neuromodulators affect olfactory information. [13] [14]

Linster's recent research has shown that neuromodulators such as acetylcholine and norepinephrine, the two main neuromodulators for olfactory sensory processing in the adult main olfactory bulb (OB), aid in discrimination between chemically similar odorants in cannulated rats. [15] The rats showed a reduction in spontaneous discrimination between similar odors when nicotinic acetylcholine receptors were blocked, and they showed a significant enhancement in spontaneous discrimination when the efficacy of cholinergic inputs was increased by unblocking these receptors. However, when the rats were observed during reward-motivated odor-discrimination tasks, the difference in cholinergic uptake by nicotinic receptors produced no significant behavioral changes. Linster's findings show that the OB is a highly plastic structure that is directly modulated by olfactory experience and the perception of odors. This plasticity of the OB in turn leads to behavioral changes based on how an odor is processed and paired with reward associations. [16] Linster took these studies further by examining how neural mechanisms such as these play a role in habituation and olfactory memory based on different periods of exposure to odors. [12] [17]

Personal life

Linster married Thomas A. "Thom" Cleland, Associate Professor of Psychology at Cornell University, [1] on October 3, 1998. They have four daughters named Linsey, Haley, Jasmine and Anna, and live in the small village of Freeville, New York. [2]

Linster and Cleland share a common interest in the olfactory system, and as a result publish many articles together covering everything from the importance of computation and predictive models in olfaction to their findings related to memory and behavior based on cholinergic neuromodulation in the olfactory bulb. [18] [16] [15]

Personal statement

"In my research, I focus on the neural basis of sensory information processing, using olfaction as a model system. I am primarily interested in the relationship between perceptual qualities, as measured by behavioral experiments, and neural activity patterns, as observed electrophysiologically. My present work concerns how the central nervous system neuromodulators acetylcholine and noradrenaline, both of which have been implicated in memory deficits such as those symptomatic of Alzheimer’s disease, influence the representation and storage of olfactory information. This approach necessitates coordinated behavioral and electrophysiological experiments based on predictive theories." [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olfactory bulb</span> Neural structure

The olfactory bulb is a neural structure of the vertebrate forebrain involved in olfaction, the sense of smell. It sends olfactory information to be further processed in the amygdala, the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the hippocampus where it plays a role in emotion, memory and learning. The bulb is divided into two distinct structures: the main olfactory bulb and the accessory olfactory bulb. The main olfactory bulb connects to the amygdala via the piriform cortex of the primary olfactory cortex and directly projects from the main olfactory bulb to specific amygdala areas. The accessory olfactory bulb resides on the dorsal-posterior region of the main olfactory bulb and forms a parallel pathway. Destruction of the olfactory bulb results in ipsilateral anosmia, while irritative lesions of the uncus can result in olfactory and gustatory hallucinations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olfactory system</span> Sensory system used for smelling

The olfactory system or sense of smell is the sensory system used for smelling (olfaction). Olfaction is one of the special senses, that have directly associated specific organs. Most mammals and reptiles have a main olfactory system and an accessory olfactory system. The main olfactory system detects airborne substances, while the accessory system senses fluid-phase stimuli.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olfactory tubercle</span> Area at the bottom of the forebrain

The olfactory tubercle (OT), also known as the tuberculum olfactorium, is a multi-sensory processing center that is contained within the olfactory cortex and ventral striatum and plays a role in reward cognition. The OT has also been shown to play a role in locomotor and attentional behaviors, particularly in relation to social and sensory responsiveness, and it may be necessary for behavioral flexibility. The OT is interconnected with numerous brain regions, especially the sensory, arousal, and reward centers, thus making it a potentially critical interface between processing of sensory information and the subsequent behavioral responses.

Neuromodulation is the physiological process by which a given neuron uses one or more chemicals to regulate diverse populations of neurons. Neuromodulators typically bind to metabotropic, G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) to initiate a second messenger signaling cascade that induces a broad, long-lasting signal. This modulation can last for hundreds of milliseconds to several minutes. Some of the effects of neuromodulators include: altering intrinsic firing activity, increasing or decreasing voltage-dependent currents, altering synaptic efficacy, increasing bursting activity and reconfigurating synaptic connectivity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Hasselmo</span> American neuroscientist

Michael Hasselmo is an American neuroscientist and professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University. He is the director of the Center for Systems Neuroscience and is editor-in-chief of Hippocampus (journal). Hasselmo studies oscillatory dynamics and neuromodulatory regulation in cortical mechanisms for memory guided behavior and spatial navigation using a combination of neurophysiological and behavioral experiments in conjunction with computational modeling. In addition to his peer-reviewed publications, Hasselmo wrote the book How We Remember: Brain Mechanisms of Episodic Memory.

Rachel Wilson is an American professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Wilson's work integrates electrophysiology, neuropharmacology, molecular genetics, functional anatomy, and behavior to explore how neural circuits are organized to react and sense a complex environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sense of smell</span> Sense that detects smells

The sense of smell, or olfaction, is the special sense through which smells are perceived. The sense of smell has many functions, including detecting desirable foods, hazards, and pheromones, and plays a role in taste.

Olfactory memory refers to the recollection of odors. Studies have found various characteristics of common memories of odor memory including persistence and high resistance to interference. Explicit memory is typically the form focused on in the studies of olfactory memory, though implicit forms of memory certainly supply distinct contributions to the understanding of odors and memories of them. Research has demonstrated that the changes to the olfactory bulb and main olfactory system following birth are extremely important and influential for maternal behavior. Mammalian olfactory cues play an important role in the coordination of the mother infant bond, and the following normal development of the offspring. Maternal breast odors are individually distinctive, and provide a basis for recognition of the mother by her offspring.

Gordon Murray Shepherd was an American neuroscientist who carried out basic experimental and computational research on how neurons are organized into microcircuits to carry out the functional operations of the nervous system. Using the olfactory system as a model that spans multiple levels of space, time and disciplines, his studies ranged from molecular to behavioral, recognized by an annual lecture at Yale University on "integrative neuroscience". At the time of his death, he was professor of neuroscience emeritus at the Yale School of Medicine. He graduated from Iowa State University with a BA, Harvard Medical School with an MD, and the University of Oxford with a DPhill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sniffing (behavior)</span> Nasal inhalation to sample odors

Sniffing is a perceptually-relevant behavior, defined as the active sampling of odors through the nasal cavity for the purpose of information acquisition. This behavior, displayed by all terrestrial vertebrates, is typically identified based upon changes in respiratory frequency and/or amplitude, and is often studied in the context of odor guided behaviors and olfactory perceptual tasks. Sniffing is quantified by measuring intra-nasal pressure or flow or air or, while less accurate, through a strain gauge on the chest to measure total respiratory volume. Strategies for sniffing behavior vary depending upon the animal, with small animals displaying sniffing frequencies ranging from 4 to 12 Hz but larger animals (humans) sniffing at much lower frequencies, usually less than 2 Hz. Subserving sniffing behaviors, evidence for an "olfactomotor" circuit in the brain exists, wherein perception or expectation of an odor can trigger brain respiratory center to allow for the modulation of sniffing frequency and amplitude and thus acquisition of odor information. Sniffing is analogous to other stimulus sampling behaviors, including visual saccades, active touch, and whisker movements in small animals. Atypical sniffing has been reported in cases of neurological disorders, especially those disorders characterized by impaired motor function and olfactory perception.

Zachary F. Mainen is an American neuroscientist whose research focuses on the brain mechanisms of decision-making.

Gregory Stephen Xavier Edward Jefferis is a British neuroscientist known for his work on the circuit basis of olfactory perception in the vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster. He is a tenured Programme Leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge (UK) and associated with the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge.

Catherine S. Woolley is an American neuroendocrinologist. Woolley holds the William Deering Chair in Biological Sciences in the Department of Neurobiology, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences, at Northwestern University. She is also a member of the Women's Health Research Institute in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Li Zhaoping</span> Chinese scientist

Li Zhaoping, born in Shanghai, China, is a neuroscientist at the University of Tübingen in Germany. She is the only woman to win the first place in CUSPEA, an annual national physics competition in China, during CUSPEA's 10-year history (1979–1989). She proposed V1 Saliency Hypothesis (V1SH), and is the author of Understanding vision: theory, models, and data published by Oxford University Press.

Lisa Giocomo is an American neuroscientist who is a Professor in the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Giocomo probes the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying cortical neural circuits involved in spatial navigation and memory.

Ilana B. Witten is an American neuroscientist and professor of psychology and neuroscience at Princeton University. Witten studies the mesolimbic pathway, with a focus on the striatal neural circuit mechanisms driving reward learning and decision making.

Dayu Lin is a neuroscientist and Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience and Physiology at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine in New York City. Lin discovered the neural circuits in the hypothalamus that give rise to aggression in mice. Her lab at NYU now probes the neural circuits underlying innate social behaviors, with a focus on aggressive and defensive behaviors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Mathis</span> Austrian computational neuroscientist

Alexander Mathis is an Austrian mathematician, computational neuroscientist and software developer. He is currently an assistant professor at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. His research interest focus on research at the intersection of computational neuroscience and machine learning.

Leslie M. Kay is an American neuroscientist and a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago. Her research studies the neurophysiology of the olfactory bulb and how behavioral context affects sensory processing.

References

  1. 1 2 Thomas Cleland. Associate Professor of Psychology at Cornell University
  2. 1 2 Linster's Personal Page, See "My Family".
  3. ↑ Cornell Faculty, Christiane Linster.
  4. ↑ Ranu Jung's Florida International University Faculty Profile, Second President of OCNS.
  5. ↑ OCNS, Founders: Christiane Linster, Erik De Schutter, Linda Larson-Prior, Phil Ulinski, Todd Troyer.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Christiane Linster's Resume, Cornell University.
  7. ↑ Linster, Christiane. "Get rhythm: A musical application for neural networks". Gesellschaft für Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung mbH, 1989. Retrieved 18 November 2015
  8. ↑ Linster, Christiane, Michel Kerszberg, and Claudine Masson. "How neurons may compute: the case of insect sexual pheromone discrimination". Journal of computational neuroscience 1.3 (1994): 231-238. Retrieved 18 November 2015
  9. ↑ Wiltrout, Charles, Samriti Dogra, and Christiane Linster. "Configurational and nonconfigurational interactions between odorants in binary mixtures". Behavioral neuroscience 117.2 (2003): 236. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  10. ↑ Fellous, Jean-Marc; Linster, Christiane (1998). "Computational Models of Neuromodulation". Neural Computation. 10 (4): 771–805. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.32.9074 . doi:10.1162/089976698300017476. PMID   9573404. S2CID   8272654.
  11. ↑ Linster, Christiane, and Michael E. Hasselmo. "Neural activity in the horizontal limb of the diagonal band of broca can be modulated by electrical stimulation of the olfactory bulb and cortex in rats". Neuroscience letters 282.3 (2000): 157-160. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  12. 1 2 Devore, Sasha, et al. "Basal forebrain dynamics during non-associative and associative olfactory learning". Journal of neurophysiology (2015): jn-00572. Retrieved 17 November 2015
  13. ↑ Mandairon, Nathalie, and Christiane Linster. "Odor perception and olfactory bulb plasticity in adult mammals". Journal of neurophysiology 101.5 (2009): 2204-2209. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  14. ↑ Linster, Christiane, and Alfredo Fontanini. "Functional neuromodulation of chemosensation in vertebrates". Current Opinion in Neurobiology 29 (2014): 82-87. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  15. 1 2 Mandairon, Nathalie; Ferretti, Casara Jean; Stack, Conor M.; Rubin, Daniel B.; Cleland, Thomas A.; Linster, Christiane (2006). "Cholinergic modulation in the olfactory bulb influences spontaneous olfactory discrimination in adult rats". European Journal of Neuroscience. 24 (11): 3234–3244. doi:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2006.05212.x. PMID   17156384. S2CID   2524701.
  16. 1 2 Cleland, Thomas A., et al. "Behavioral models of odor similarity". Behavioral neuroscience 116.2 (2002): 222. Retrieved 19 November 2015
  17. ↑ McNamara, Ann Marie, et al. "Distinct neural mechanisms mediate olfactory memory formation at different timescales". Learning & memory 15.3 (2008): 117-125. Retrieved 17 November 2015
  18. ↑ Cleland, Thomas A., and Christiane Linster. "Computation in the olfactory system" [ dead link ]. Chemical senses 30.9 (2005): 801-813. Retrieved 19 November 2015
  19. ↑ Computational Physiology Laboratory-Cornell University, Christiane Linster's Personal Statement.
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